The legacy vs. Because of her

[Kofler222]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 6:24am

Hi! I was just listening the amazing On the 20th century revival recording and comparing it with the Original Broadway cast album. i think the lyrics for The legacy are far much funnier than the ones written as Because of her...does anyone k ow why thay've made that change? What do you think about the new lyrics and the old ones?

[tazber]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 6:47am

I much prefer The Legacy.

According to Amanda Green they thought the original lyrics had too many dated references.

She had permission to interpolate any unused Coleman melody she wanted to.

After sifting through dozens of trunk songs, she realized that The Legacy's melody really fit the score best so she wrote new lyrics.

 

Updated On: 6/23/15 at 06:47 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 6:49am

Here's the link where she discusses it:

Link

 

 

[Kofler222]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 6:53am

Thank you so much for the info!

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 8:29am

I prefer The Legacy as well.  I saw the show for the second time on Saturday, and it's a bit jarring to hear completely different lyrics after being so accustomed to the original cast recording.

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 11:28am

I also prefer the Legacy, though not having seen the revival, it's hard to judge "Because of Her" Out of Context. It's certainly not as FUNNY as the Legacy (though I do like the Pittsburgh joke). If the audience can't deal with references to Ellen Terry, Abie's Irish Rose, or Floradora, I think that's on them. I also don't think you have to get the references to get the song. Maybe they could have replaced a few individual jokes, but I think it really fits Oscar's that his "final words" are more concerned with how benevolent and wonderful he is rather than how he screwed up. His "suicidal intentions" are more "goodbye cruel world" than "what have I done?", after all. As initially conceived, I don't think the audience for a moment believes that he is going to go out and shoot himself, so the sound of the gunshot is a hilarious shock. How does the moment play now?

[gypsy101]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 1:41pm

Just listening to the recordings, I preferred The Legacy. Once I saw the show, I appreciated the moment being more personal about Lily than about his stuff that he's leaving in his will.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 1:45pm

I think "The Legacy" is the stronger song. "Because of Her" is undercut by the fact that it's an introspective song in which Oscar resolves to change ("I close the iron door on myself!") but then that is absolutely, not at all supported by everything that comes after (faking death to trick Lily into signing the contract).

[jv92]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 9:36pm

I don't think "Because of Her" is necessarily a bad song. HOWEVER...

"The Legacy" is much better. Comden and Green were masters at listing somewhat obscure, seemingly minute things and putting them into brilliant comedy numbers-- take "Simple Little System" in BELLS ARE RINGING. So, it's classic Betty 'n' Adolph, and the rewrite disregards and disrespects their unique voice entirely. Also, tonally speaking, an introspective moment for Oscar Jaffe is not just not him, but not the piece as well. The piece is an insincere, madcap romp. ("Our Private World" is a flaw in the show, despite being pretty, in my opinion.) A moment of sincerity somewhat hurts the tone of the show-- at least for a little while. TWO moments of sincerity ruin the tone of the show almost totally. And who gives a flying f*ck if the audience doesn't know who Ellen Terry or what FLORADORA is? Get over it! 

The Roundabout has been pandering to stupid audiences for a long time, and the rewritten song is just typical. I wish the people behind the shows would stop helping make already dumb audiences even dumber. 

 

Updated On: 6/23/15 at 09:36 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 6/23/15 at 10:52pm

"Our Private World" is a flaw in the show, despite being pretty, in my opinion.

I've always thought the same thing about Our Private World. I've thought that it was flawed because comparing Lily and Oscar's private world to a play about a pair of lovers isn't really metaphorical; he's a director and she's an actress, so their private world really is close to what they say. And then I realized: is it possible Comden & Green (to whom I've always ascribed a huge amount of wit and humor) wrote it as a literal-metaphor on purpose; it's supposed to be cheesy and literal? Anyone think the same thing?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/24/15 at 8:39pm

I agree that "The Legacy" is the better, more appropriate song.  It's flamboyant and self-serving, instead of the more sincere "Because Of Her".  But "The Legacy" is also problematic.  It's a star spot for Oscar, after Lily has just had the show-stopping "Babette".  But "The Legacy" is a list song that pretty much plays its hand in the first verse, and then has two more verses to go, where it mostly repeats itself.  List songs need to keep topping themselves in wit, invention or sheer absurdity, the way Irving Berlin or Cole Porter were often able to do.  

I'm sure it was meant to be a showstopper for Oscar, and one can just imagine Adolph Green selling the hell out of it in backers auditions.  But it didn't create a major impression in the original production, even with a game John Cullum delightfully trilling his consonants.  Over at All That Chat, AlanScott, who saw the original production multiple times said in a recent thread that he only saw the number really land once - at closing, when Cullum gave it absolutely everything he had in him.  AlanScott theorized that perhaps the song needed that type of go-for-broke commitment all along, but in practice, in a farce that's as much of a heavy sing as On The Twentieth Century, few actors would be able to sustain that level of performance for eight shows a week.